According to this GamesBeat report, the new controller for Microsoft's soon-to-be-released Xbox One console cost the company $100 million to research and develop. While consumers may not see much of a difference between the gamepad that comes with the Xbox One and the one they are currently using with the Xbox 360, the company spent a lot of money looking at new features - many of which did not make it into the final gamepad design.

"I don't want to go into specifics," Xbox GM for accessories Zulfi Alam told the site, "but it's over $100 million for sure. Between the tooling of the device, the investments we made in process technology, and the engineering work that went into it, we invested a lot to get this thing right."

Microsoft considered making some pretty drastic changes for the Xbox One gamepad and made several prototypes with screens, speakers, touchpads, cameras, and an odd smell-emitting functionality. Many of these features were scrapped because of concerns that they would sap the controller's battery charge length. Some features didn't make the cut after rigorous focus testing.

"No, it's not a drop in the bucket," Alam said of the expense Microsoft incurred for its new controller. "For any company, when you spend that much money, you have to make sure that the output is amazing. This team bet its careers on this."